


Copy

by tocasia



Series: Our Shining Past [20]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: AU, Gen, Memories, Paperwork, Sephiroth and Zack friendship, Stream of Consciousness, comma splice of life, lab work, real villains have mothers, science is important
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-16
Updated: 2017-08-16
Packaged: 2018-12-16 06:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11823138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocasia/pseuds/tocasia
Summary: Sorting through old memories in the labs, Sephiroth remembers her.(40. copy) for Seph&Zack Friendship 100 Themes





	Copy

Sephiroth was visiting the labs, as he sometimes did for nostalgia's sake.

At least the subject matter was different. He'd offered to go through some old paperwork and sort out what should be saved. Because of his clearance, there were no objections. They needed the help. Data, research proposal drafts, cross-indexed references, notes on improving methods, names and makes of centrifuges and scales... those things were important. Receipts for take-out food, misplaced personal correspondence, faded ID stickers with their adhesive dried to uselessness, ancient checklists where the lab techs had signed off on who had cleaned the autoclave that Tuesday... those were not, and went in another pile.

This box had been forgotten for a long time. Loose sheets of paper tucked into notebooks were crinkled and had started to yellow at the edges. He saw a familiar name written in permanent marker on one of the covers.

He'd asked Hojo once when he was a child, "Who is Professor Gast? His name is on all my files but I never see him."

Hojo's reply had been bitter. "He's in charge of the project. Lucrecia and I work for him, and he takes the credit because he makes the rules."

There were a lot of rules in the labs.

Against protocol, Lucrecia, his mother, had held him in her arms. It wasn't a completely unreasonable thing to do. When he was very young, tests were easier to administer with someone keeping him still than they would have been if he was allowed to squirm all over the table and possibly injure himself.

So, she held him and comforted him with her voice. She never told him the treatments wouldn't hurt. She never told him she would always be there, only that she would be if she could.

She _had_ been there, for a while. She showed it with small kindnesses, like smiles from across the room while he played with the lab equipment. She didn't press too hard when swabbing disinfectant on his arms, or legs, or back, and the injections she gave didn't bruise. She tried to explain to him what was going on so that he wouldn't be afraid.

Lucrecia taught him things, not as actively as she clearly wanted to, but he picked up on her values. He learned how important it was to observe, to question, to search out answers. To plan ahead and not be wasteful, and to keep a control whenever possible.

Beyond that, no sentimental interaction was tolerated. His parents were both Shinra scientists; they had to follow procedures. Shinra would hurt them, otherwise. Sephiroth understood that and forgave them.

And then Lucrecia had died, in an accident, before he'd been able to tell her that he knew she was his mother.

Jenova stayed by his side. She promised to, always. He thought that was because she didn't understand death. She didn't know why he was sad, only that he was, and comforted him the way Lucrecia had, with the same voice he remembered. The voice a mother should have.

 


End file.
